Frenchie'S 29 Gallon(Updated 11-09-09)

[frenchie]

on top of the last question, would I benefit from having a small powerhead in the tank?

 

[lljdma06]

the tank is 30" wide. I still have the original light which is up to 20watts if I got a new bulb for it. So I could just add the 2x18 which would put me at 56 total and 1.93wpg. I thought 2+ is recommended for most planted setups?

I plan on liquid ferts but would like to avoid co2, what lighting range should I be looking for? I currently have 1.5wpg on my planted 10gallon, some plants grow slowly in it and others do not grow at all. Co2 is not totally out of the question but a pressurized system is out of my budget.

If you want to avoid CO2, aim for about 1-1.5WPG of ligthing of good T5 lights. My 20g uses 1.4WPG of T5s, you could probably buy the same Coralife that I have, which is a 24" 2x14W T5, but get the 30" 2x18W T5, which would give you nearly 1.24WPG. You can order it online. BigAl's will have it.

Smaller tanks don't work the same with regard to WPG. WPG is really only a basic guideline. The smaller the tank, the more light a tank needs to get the equivalent effect. A 20g will be low-light at 28W, a 10g will be low-light at 28W. The 20g will have 1.4WPG, while the 10g will have 2.8WPG. Below say, 15-20g, it takes more WPG to get the same effect. I have 2.8WPG in my 10g and grow low-light plants with no CO2 or ferts.

on top of the last question, would I benefit from having a small powerhead in the tank?

For me, the more water circulation, the better, which is one of the reasons why my filtration is so heavy. I also never know when I'll have to setup another tank, so I use extra filters rather than powerheads to create the effect of circulation. Powerheads will accomplish the same effect.

 

[frenchie]

got the coralife 2x18 t5 and a new all-glass hood today. Sailfin had them for about the same price as on the web once the shipping was added in.

I took the cover from the old light and put it over the new so that the light matched the existing tank. The water is still a little stained from the wood but it is clearing up.

The tank is also fully cycled

Unfortunately all the plants at sailfin didn't look so swell.

I ordered:
1 Wendtii, Red (Cryptocoryne wendtii)
2 Wendtii, Green (Cryptocoryne wendtii)
1 Vals, Corkscrew (Vallisneria americana) (10 plants per order)
1 Java Fern (Microsorium pteropus)
1 Dwarf Hairgrass (Eleocharis acicularis) pot
2 CLOVER, FOUR LEAF (Marsilea quadrifolia)
2 Wisteria (Hygrophila difformis)

plus I already have 2 types of anubius, a amazon sword, another small type of sword, and some pre-packaged fern plant from petsmart(though it may be too late for that one).

All of the plants I ordered minus the hairgrass fell under a low light category so hopefully all goes well.

Hopefully I got the order in in time to ship this week.

also for good measure:

my cat navi inspecting what is to be my new snail breeding tank

 

[lljdma06]

got the coralife 2x18 t5 and a new all-glass hood today. Sailfin had them for about the same price as on the web once the shipping was added in.

I took the cover from the old light and put it over the new so that the light matched the existing tank. The water is still a little stained from the wood but it is clearing up.

The tank is also fully cycled

Unfortunately all the plants at sailfin didn't look so swell.

I ordered:
1 Wendtii, Red (Cryptocoryne wendtii)
2 Wendtii, Green (Cryptocoryne wendtii)
1 Vals, Corkscrew (Vallisneria americana) (10 plants per order)
1 Java Fern (Microsorium pteropus)
1 Dwarf Hairgrass (Eleocharis acicularis) pot
2 CLOVER, FOUR LEAF (Marsilea quadrifolia)
2 Wisteria (Hygrophila difformis)

plus I already have 2 types of anubius, a amazon sword, another small type of sword, and some pre-packaged fern plant from petsmart(though it may be too late for that one).

All of the plants I ordered minus the hairgrass fell under a low light category so hopefully all goes well.

Neat idea with the old hood. I like. The hairgrass I found to be twitchy up there. If you can try E. tennelus, do. It is a grass-like plant that I find does well in lower light systems. You'll love marsilea, but it does go through an ugly phase while it sheds its emmersed growth for submerged. H. difformis will do this as well, as will the hairgrass. Don't plant the hairgrass in one clump, plant it like you would plant HC, in very small groups of plantlets or individual plantlets.

What are you fish plans? Is this going to be a DP tank, I noticed the snail factory, but botias also relish snails.

 

[frenchie]

I have had wysteria before and thought it would be a good starter as it grows fast initially.

Nope not a dwarf puffer tank. I have a 5gallon tank for her(my other tanks are in my sig).

The fish in my 10gallon will be getting moved over:
I currently have a pleco that I can't remember the type but people seemed to thing long fin bristlenose from my pics. It has gotten quite a bit bigger and this is the reason I looked into getting a bigger tank.
2 silver hatchetfish
3 zerbra danios
1 glowlight
1 halfbanded rasbora

I plan on expaning the numbers of the hatchets, glowlights, and rasboras so that they can have proper school sizes. At one point or another I had larger numbers of all of the fish.

I also would like to add one other type of fish, any suggestions?

Also plants will be here tomorrow

 

[frenchie]

I added another bag of eco-complete, got florish excel, and some java moss from the lfs today, then hurried home to see if the plants came in.

So when I got my envelope of plants today I thought it looked kinda small:

my cat checking out the plants

The plants were plenty enough for the tank:

sorry the water is still kinda murky from the new bag of eco-complete

Looking forward to it filling in

 

[frenchie]

Big update:

New tankmates are 5 amino shrimp, but the hatchet literally dissapeared last week, I couldn't find it anywhere. I also added a korilia pump that is behind the driftwood. I have it pointed to the left so that side of the tank gets better circulation.

So the good and the bad:

Good:
-The brown crypts seem to be doing really well and the green ones are doing ok.
-The java fern leaves are all starting to grow plantlets out of them. Do it pull these new parts off and root them or just let them be?
-The anubius barti is rooted well
-The anubius nana is doing ok. A glued down a piece with no leaves on the upper left side of the wood and it has 4 small leaves starting, by the next update they should be visable in the pictures
-The vals and wysteria started out growing fast

Now for the bad:
-My sword seems to be doing very poorly.
-The wysteria and vals started growing fast but have now tapered out and have algae growing on them.
-I have either bba or staghorn growing on almost all of the plants. I have started overdosing excell(5mls a day) to try to solve the problem and reducing my lighting period.
-The java moss wasn't doing well so I just pulled it all out.
-The hairgrass is sprouting new blades but the exisitng ones look to be dieing out.

Any help with the above issues is greatly appreciated. I started using leafzone to try to help out the sword and added root tabs a while back but it does not seem to be improving.

On a seperate note I want to add some more plants with some color, any suggestions? I was thinking a red tiger lotus right in the front center.

 

[frenchie]

Most of the plants seem to be doing ok, I have only been dosing liquid ferts when I do water changes. Probably should have put this in the low tec section.
-Some of the java ferns didnt want to stay on the back of the wood, so i just put them in the soil in the front. Any good way to re attach them to the wood?
-Also as you can see, the sword doesn't seem to have fully adjusted to this tank yet. I was hoping it would fill out that corner of the tank.
-A also tryed adding a red tiger lotus for some color, but i think it still needs some time to adjust to the tank, it was pretty beat up from the maling process.

 

[lljdma06]

We don't have a low tech vs. a high tech here. It is all good.

Some very fine growth, especially from the crypts.

llj